The Faces of The Old World
by Humane
Summary: Citizens, vault dwellers, cast away's, and even psychopaths find themselves trapped in some sort of game where the fate of humanity lies in the results.


**The Faces of the Old World Chapter 1, The Padded Room**

**Authors Note: This is a rewrite of "The Padded Room" an old fan fiction I started but never finished a year or so ago. I feel like I've grown as a writer (at least a little) and after reading the original work I feel like I should start over. I actually have a general feel as to where the plot is going, and am going to update more consistently. The characters are mostly the same and I feel like the background for all of them is a lot nicer than before. Grammar is still my weak spot, it always has been. So please bear with me. Criticism is always appreciated regardless of whether or not it's good or bad. So enjoy the story and tell me what you think.**

The silence was new. It wasn't something Orion experienced very often. The ground beneath him was cold, and yet another aberration. He was groggy tired and he felt a little sick. He slowly began to sit up, his body trying to prevent him from doing so. He breathed slowly and silently while trying to open his eyes. He wasn't fully awake yet but he felt different in his environment. He figured something was wrong, he knew he wasn't in his vault anymore. The stench was different, something he hadn't experienced. After waking up under the same roof every day it's second nature to get used to something so trivial. The boy finally opened his eyes and took in his surroundings.

The boy looked around as if he expected such a predicament. All around him were four white walls. Illuminated by a bright bulb suspended by what looked to be a rusted silver cord. The room was no bigger than the one he inhabited back in the vault. Regardless, the most noticeable in the room was that of another person. A few feet away on the other side across from Orion was a girl with dark skin and deep brown hair. She was sleeping.

Orion wasn't much for work or anything that consumed to much energy. He was pretty lazy and although he was only 15 he already had his life planned out for him. Do well on the G.O.A.T and get a decent job that didn't require to much work, or at least one that he could stand. Next he'd marry a simple girl, not to pretty, and not to ugly. If possible have two kids, one boy and one girl. Grow old and die before his wife, seems like the ideal existence. Yet here he was stuck in an enclosed room with some girl he'd never seen before

"What the hell did I do to deserve this?" He said out loud starring at the light above him.

Although he was lazy Orion was actually a very intelligent person, a child prodigy. His IQ was well over 200 and it's like he has the mind of a great general. No one else in his vault has the sagacity and prowess that Orion does. A true erudite similar to Alexander the Great or Lincoln. Although his intelligence was the shining jewel of his persona he'd rather take a nap than a written exam.

The boy looked back down at the girl and tried to think about where he might have seen her. Vault 33 wasn't very eventful. In fact it was quite the opposite. Orion remembered the monotonous rut he was in. Wasting away his life in such a pivotal little world. The endless cycle of living, existence underground is nothing but time consuming and absolutely redundant. Reading about all the great heroes and leaders in history changing a world that he's never even seen, effecting people on such a massive scale that he could never hope to understand. The innovations in technology, breakthroughs in scientific thought and new forms of thinking, and how these global processes spread to brand new areas. The concept was foreign to him. How could one person or group of people do something so important? Orion was curious, after all he lived in a small metal hole his entire life. How could he ever understand the idea of a mass migration of concepts and new innovations?

He hardly cared for his parents. They were just people to him, other human beings he was forced to live with. He read in novels from the archive section in the vault about parenting and ideal home ownership. He enjoyed what he learned and understood that parents were supposed to care for their children and provide help and assistance until they were old enough to do so on their own. In the vault it was the same with a few exceptions. Babies are nurtured by "Mr Gusty's Homec and Pampering Edition" a special version of the former robot that was specifically designed for child care. Parents would only get to visit their children every other day, though their really wasn't a requirement. The autonomous machines would raise them until they were capable of walking and speaking efficiently. It was then they'd be able to live with their parents with who their wouldn't be a very strong bond with. Love was limited in the vault, but Orion wanted to change that. He wanted something different for himself.

He thought of all the people he's seen in the vault and he couldn't seem to pinpoint who this girl was. She certainly was different and when she woke up he'd ask her hundreds of questions. Though she'd probably be more interested in where she was, Orion hadn't given that much thought yet. He was just happy to be somewhere else even if their was still a roof over his head. He saw pictures of it all the time. The sun, trees, flowers all the things that supposedly made up the beauty of the world. However he also read about war, radiation and nuclear fallout. The things that destroyed it. Orion decided that whatever the world above looked like it had to be more pleasant than life underground.

Before the boy could continue his thoughts the girl began to move.

* * *

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Stella awoke with alacrity, she had finally decided to live on her own, and although she'd be leaving behind her family she understood that they didn't care about her. Despite the fact that she had gotten them through many hardships. She was the one that fed them, clothed them, kept them alive. If it weren't for her they'd all be dead, it's as simple as that. Her mother didn't know much about survival and relied on her father to take care of her. Since Stella was the oldest, before he died he taught her many things about survival. The wasteland was anything but sympathetic, taking away everyone close to her creating a very dark personality for Stella.

It wasn't long until she was completely responsible for the well being of her family. Her mother began to seclude herself from her children and relied heavily on Stella to keep alive, never quite understanding the burden she placed on her daughter. Stella began to realize that the bonds with her family were only inhibiting her survival. So she left them to die. The night she left she found herself under a dilapidated overpass a few miles away from her house. It was cold, dark and the exasperating sense of failure loomed over her the entire night.

Stella awoke with readiness. She was anticipating the beginning of a new day, but was greeted with confusion and an odd set off eyes starring back at her. He was a boy, from what she could tell fairly tall, curly blonde hair, and a fair build. He was wearing what seemed to be a Vault uniform. The girl immediately stood up and gave a demeaning look to the boy in front of her. He was sitting down with his back against the wall and his elbows on his knees resting his head on the back of his hands. He didn't look very challenging.

"Who are you and what's going on?" Stella said plainly whilst analyzing the white room. She knew this boy wasn't her captor, and she also knew this boy likely didn't know any more than she did, but regardless the girl had to start somewhere.

She took note of the boys facial expressions as he responded to her. He was surprisingly relaxed and calm. Stella on the other hand was trying very hard to keep her cool, despite her want to yell angrily at him.

"My name's Orion, and I don't know what's going on", the boy replied almost immediately. "However, it shouldn't be to difficult to figure out who's responsible for us being stuck here", He ended with a loud yawn.

Stella had some ideas but she didn't _know_ anything about this boy. She decided to play along, but she didn't exactly feel comfortable around him. She gave the boy a sarcastic look before responding. "Well, enlighten me then", she began to navigate the small room looking for a possible exit.

The boy laughed a little. Orion didn't think to much of it but he admired the girls personality. He was actually beginning to enjoy her company. "Well," the boy said curiously. "We obviously don't recognize each other, and from the looks of it you've probably never been inside a vault before."

Stella realized that she wasn't exactly wearing ideal clothing, at least compared to "Vault Life Standards." She was wearing rigid clothing that covered a fair amount of her body. Her shoes were old and although were adequate, they seemed ephemeral. The rest of her clothing was dirty and construed, poorly sewn together and disgusting. Her hair was very long, and her face had small, but noticeable patches of dirt covering it.

Stella stopped moving and gave him a resentful look, "Yeah, I haven't exactly lived, you know, a perfect life 200 feet underground where everything's just fantastic."

Orion realized he had embarrassed the girl and he immediately felt bad because of it. Here he was wanting to ask her questions about the outside world completely oblivious to her feelings.

The boy sighed, and rubbed the back of his head. "Sorry, I was just trying to make a point", he said sadly.

Stella realized that he didn't know any better. After all he was a vault dweller, someone who's never seen the outside world. Ignorance isn't something worth complaining about. Still though, his words cut deep, "Don't worry about it" she said looking in another direction.

"Anyways" Orion continued. "We're not dead, I mean who ever did this to us obviously isn't trying to kill us."

Stella looked back at the boy and began to laugh, " I guess you're right about that.", she said humorously. After a few moments of silence she continued, "Still though, it begs the question; "Why us? I mean, I don't know about you but I'm no one special. I can't think of a reason why anyone would want to take me."

Orion replied." Well I can't either, I mean most of my time in the vault was spent reading." Orion stretched his arms and legs, "But that leads us to yet another question. How did they manage to take both of us? Vaults are practically impenetrable, the only way they can be opened is manually or on their scheduled dates."

Stella was aware of the insane defense Vaults had, it really was impossible to break into them, no matter how much she thought she couldn't figure out who was behind all of this. She finally decided to sit down almost exhausted for some reason. She kept her gaze fixated on him, "Hey, Orion where was your Vault located?"

Orion looked ready to take a nap himself but he responded quickly, "Evansville, Indiana, a small town somewhere in the northern region of the United States."

Stella sighed with disappointment. She thought there would be a possibility of deducing who was behind this, but now..The girl stretched before laying on the soft floor. She yawned and turned over to see Orion doing the same on the other side of the room. "Well, _I_ am from Phoenix Arizona", she replied almost happily.

She was surprised to see Orion groan in response. He was laughing. "It seems I've underestimated our captors." he said sarcastically. He continued. "I've narrowed it down to two possibilities. Either we've been kidnapped by the remnants of some sort of national organization, and are currently being surveyed for reasons unknown to us. Or we've been abducted by aliens."

Stella looked at him strangely before responding. "Well the alien idea seems more plausible."

Before Orion had a chance to respond a deep churning sound of metal and rust diffused across the room, and before they knew it they were moving up, and they were moving fast.


End file.
